Japanese/Korean Linguistics

This paper re-examines the syntactic properties of Japanese non-coreferential sentence-final Noun-Copula constructions (Mermaid Constructions, MMCs). I first revisit previous analyses of Japanese MMCs by reconsidering the structural position of the nominative subject. Furthermore, I argue for a non-unified analysis of Japanese MMCs by presenting asymmetries regarding the presence/absence of syntactic island effects (examined by long-distance scrambling and PP topicalization) and the (im)possibility of gap-filler dependencies. To account for these asymmetries, I argue that Japanese MMCs involve two syntactically distinct types: one with the MMC Noun (i.e., the ‘Noun’ slot in non-coreferential sentence-final Noun-Copula constructions) functioning as an N head and the other with the MMC Noun functioning as a C head. The proposed non-unified analysis also accounts for the asymmetry concerning the (im)possibility of Nominative/Genitive Conversion in Japanese MMCs.